A desperate bid for se_xual organ enlargement backfired for a 56-year-old man after he was reportedly duped of nearly US$1 500 by a self-styled traditional healer he had consulted.
Mike Kashiri, of Overspill in Epworth, is accused of conning Gibson Kashiri of his cash.The two are however, not related.Mike allegedly misrepresented to Gibson that his money would multiply to more than US$1million after applying his herbs.
This was after Gibson approached the traditional healer with intention to get assistance to enlarge in manhood.
Failure to realise the promised cash forced Gibson to approach the police complaining that he had been duped of US$1 450, which he paid for the services rendered by Mike.
Mike was then arrested and taken to the Harare magistrates’ court charged with fraud.
He denied the charges when he appeared before magistrate Erick Kadye saying he is a traditional healer registered with ZINATHA.
Mike’s lawyer said:
“He was approached by the complainant sometime in November 2016 initially for a pe_nis enlargement.
“For this service, the complainant was charged and paid US$50.
“The complainant was pleased with the quality of the results produced and sought the assistance of the accused further in getting rid of evil spirits at his place of residence in Epworth.
“After assessing the quantum of work to be done, the accused charged the complainant US$950.
“This amount was agreed to and the work was done, complainant paid the agreed amount,” he said.
Mike told the court in his defence that after sometime, Gibson returned to him complaining that the evil spirits had not been exorcised.
He also said that Gibson then demanded his money back.“The accused was open to this suggestion and in return, requested that all the material he had used for the removal of the evil spirits at the instance of the complainant be returned as well.
“The complainant refused to return the material as requested and the next interaction the parties had was when the complainant came with the police to arrest the accused,” he said.
Gibson told the court that all what Nike said were falsehoods.
Although he acknowledged visiting the traditional healer, the 56-year-old said Mike never visited his place with intention to remove evil spirits.
He said that Mike agreed to reimbursing him after his herbs failed to work as expected.
“There was never a time when he came to exorcise evil spirits at my house. He does not even know where I stay.
“He promised to give back my money. We even signed an affidavit to that effect.
“He had promised to reimburse my money on March 15 this year but he failed. He even promised to sell his beasts which are in the rural area and pay back my money.
“But a very long time elapsed before he paid owned up to his promise.
“It was when I decided to take the matter to the police,” he said.
Asked how he lost his cash to Mike, Gibson said:
“There was a calabash which had a voice saying I could get a lot of cash after using the herbs. The voice said that the money would come in a suitcase and for that I was supposed to pay US$700.
“On the first day I paid US$400 and was told to return to collect the bag upon payment of the full amount.
“I returned on the following day and paid US$300 but I did not see the suitcase.
“It was when the voice from the calabash asked to pay US$150 for each of my children. I have five children.
“I then suggested that since I had paid the total amount, the other money should be subtracted from the cash which was in the suitcase.
“That is where the problem started and I walked away,” he said.-h-Metro
